South Dakota Mines senior A.J. Trennepohl has been a dagger in the side of the Dickinson State men's basketball team for four years.
The sharpshooting guard came off the bench to get in one last word Sunday afternoon at Scott Gymnasium.
Trennepohl scored a game-high 19 points, hitting four 3-pointers in a span of 2 minutes, 30 seconds to lead a 15-0 Mines run over the final 6 minutes of the first half.
The Hardrockers went on to hand DSU its fourth straight loss, 63-47, in the nonconference game between former Dakota Athletic Conference rivals.
"We usually play pretty well when I knock down those 3's," Trennepohl said with a smile. "We get good runs going, it gets good energy going and we play really well on defense too."
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Trennepohl broke open a game a game that was, until that point, stagnant and defensively driven. The Hardrockers (8-3) took a 34-21 lead at halftime and expanded on that with a 14-3 run early in the second half that put them up 50-30 and all but slammed the door shut on DSU's chances.
"We didn't respond real well to adversity," DSU head coach Ty Orton said. "We're not doing a very good job right now. I've got to do a better job of making sure the kids respond better to adversity, making sure their shot selections are better, and not rushing shots."
It wasn't a good day for the Blue Hawks (3-7), who are now without Matt Lee.
Orton said senior preseason all-Frontier Conference selection was "removed from the team," last week following the team's loss to Rocky Mountain College on Dec. 5.
Lee, a three-time all-DAC pick and a 2011 NAIA All-America honorable mention selection, was averaging a career-low 8.1 points per game but was leading the team with 5.3 rebounds a game.
Mines took advantage of the 6-foot-6 forward's absence, beating DSU on the boards 35-24.
It was the Hardrockers' third game in as many days. They lost at Montana State-Billings on Thursday and defeated the Frontier's Rocky Mountain College on Friday in Billings. Sunday's game was originally scheduled for Nov. 9 but was postponed because weather conditions prevented the Hardrockers from reaching Dickinson.
Playing games in consecutive days is nothing new for the Hardrockers, now playing an NCAA Division II independent schedule.
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The only thing Henry wasn't pleased about was Mines' turnovers. They had 65 in three games, including 19 against DSU.
"Hopefully we can get that fixed here over break because we've got a tough stretch ahead of us," Henry said. "We're excited where we're at right now, but we need a couple weeks off. There's no doubt about that."
Calvin Thomas and James Dean each had 10 points for Mines while Caleb Shockman added eight points and eight rebounds.
Though the Blue Hawks trailed by 20 with 13 minutes left, they found chances to respond. A pair of 3-pointers by James Hayden helped cut Mines' lead to 50-38, DSU never got any closer.
Johnie Sanders had 11 points and five rebounds to lead the Blue Hawks. Robbie Morey added 10 points as DSU shot just 17 of 44 (39 percent) from the field.
"There's some positives that came out of it tonight," Orton said. "It's all on the defensive end. Stuff we can control, we've got to control it."
SOUTH DAKOTA MINES (8-3): Caleb Shockman 2-5 4-7 8, Denis Dobkowski 0-2 1-2 1, Lucas Nolan 3-7 3-4 9, Calvin Thomas 3-8 1-2 10, James Dean 4-10 0-0 10, Philip Schanilec 0-3 0-0 0, Adams Ahmudu Jr. 0-0 0-0 0, A.J. Trennepohl 6-10 2-2 19, Konor Kulas 1-1 1-1 3, Joe Newkirk 0-0 0-0 0, Troy Whiteto 0-0 0-2 0, Justin Schock 0-0 0-0 0, Andrew Rebol 1-1 1-2 3. Totals 20-47 13-22 63.
DICKINSON STATE (3-7): Johnie Sanders 4-11 3-4 11, Phillip Johnson Jr. 1-2 1-2 3, Ty Ackelson 1-4 0-0 2, Robbie Morey 4-6 1-1 10, John Hanstad 1-3 1-2 4, Anthony Hodges 0-1 0-0 0, Ryan Sullivan 1-2 0-2 2, James Hayden 2-3 1-2 7, Brock Boos 2-3 0-0 6, Isiah Thomas 0-0 0-0 0, Josh Williams 0-0 0-0 0, Jarek Hansen 1-8 0-0 2, Jeremy Samuelson 0-0 0-0 0, Timmy Benedict 0-0 0-0 0, Destry Sterkel 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 17-44 7-13 47.
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Halftime: SDM 34-21. Total fouls: SDM 15, DSU 20. 3-point goals: SDM 10-20 (Thomas 3-5, Dean 2-5, Schanilec 0-1, Trennepohl 5-9), DSU 6-17 (Sanders 0-1, Ackelson 1-2, Morey 1-1, Hanstad 1-3, Sullivan 0-1, Hayden 2-3, Boos 2-3, Hansen 0-3). Rebounds: SDM 35 (Shockman 8), DSU 24 (Johnson 6). Assists: SDM 16 (Schanilec 5), DSU 9 (Sanders 3). Steals: SDM 10 (Dobkowski 3), DSU 10 (Hayden 2, Sanders 2). Blocks: SDM 0, DSU 1 (Sullivan). Turnovers: SDM 19 (Nolan 4), DSU 18 (three with 3).
